Historical timeline of photogrammetry and laser scanning

Photogrammetry

Ancient work

• 5th century BCE: Chinese writings (Zhoubi Suanjing) describe pinhole projections (camera obscura principles).
• 4th century BCE: Euclid formulates geometric principles of perspective.
• 1046 BC - 256 BC Discovery and capture of natural optical phenomena. Perforated gnomons projecting a pinhole image of the sun were described in the Chinese Zhoubi Suanjing writings. Some ancient sightings of gods and spirits, especially in temple worship, are thought to possibly have been conjured up by means of camera obscura projections.
• 300 BC Geometry, perspective, pinhole camera model — Euclid
• 500 BC Camera Obscura. (500 BC in China, 350 BC Aristote, 1000 Al-Haytham, 1500 Léonard de Vinci)

Early period

• 1435 Leon Battista Alberti publishes De Pictura, explaining linear perspective, and around 1430–1440 he devises early surveying/map-making techniques (e.g. measuring Rome’s city plan), laying groundwork for topographic mapping
• 1611 Camera lucida conceptualized (patented in 1806 by William Hyde Wollaston).
• 1685 Optical Projection Illustration. Johann Zahn’s treatise Oculus Artificialis includes detailed drawings of camera obscura setups (like the dragon projection) that foreshadow how projected images could be used to amaze or deceive

19th century

• 1839 Daguerreotype, “gift to the world” from French Academy. First publicly available photographic process.
• 1851 “Father of Photogrammetry”, french officer Aime Laussedat develops the first photogrammetrical devices and methods, using calibrated images and drawing apparatus.
• 1858 The German architect A. Meydenbauer develops photogrammetrical techniques for the documentation of buildings.
• 1859 Aime Lausseda demonstrated a photo-based topographic survey of Paris
• 1866 The Viennese physicist Ernst Mach publishes the idea to use the stereoscope to estimate volumetric measures.
• 1885 The ancient ruins of Persepolis were the first archaeological object recorded photogrammetrically.
• 1889 The first German manual of photogrammetry was published by C. Koppe.
• 1893 Meydenbauer coined the word “Photogrammetry”.
• 1896 Eduard Gaston and Daniel Deville present the first stereoscopic instrument for vectorized mapping.

20th century

• 1909 The invention and use of stereoscopic plotting instruments (e.g., Zeiss Stereoplanigraph
• 1910 The ISP (International Society for Photogrammetry), now ISPRS, was founded by E. Dolezal in Austria.
• 1911 Aerial photogrammetry with rectified photographs by Theodor Scheimpflug.
• 1924 Relative orientation determined by 6 points in overlapping images — von Gruber points.
• 1930s–1950s Development of mathematical methods for block adjustment and bundle adjustment.
• 1957 Analytical plotter (Helava) - Image-map coordinate transformation by electronic computation & servocontrol.
• 1964 First architectural tests with the new stereometric camera-system, which had been invented by Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen and Hans Foramitti, Vienna.
• 1980 Improvements in computer hardware and software

21st century

• 2005 Introduction of Structure from Motion (SfM) algorithms enables 3D reconstruction from unordered image sets, expanding usability in archaeology, architecture, and geology.
• 2009 The first commercial drone with a high-resolution camera (by DJI) was released.
• 2010s Emergence of open-source tools (e.g., OpenMVG, MicMac, COLMAP).
• 2010 Growth of consumer-grade UAVs (drones) with integrated cameras
• 2012 Launch of Agisoft PhotoScan (later Metashape), bringing accessible 3D modeling to professionals and hobbyists.
• 2013 DJI Phantom 1 released in 2013
• 2014 Pix4D releases Pix4Dmapper, pushing automated drone image processing for mapping and 3D modeling further into commercial and academic use.
• 2015 Photogrammetry integrated with BIM (Building Information Modeling) workflows becomes standard for renovation and documentation.
• 2016 The rise of smartphone-based photogrammetry apps and cloud processing
• 2017 Use of real-time SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) in mobile and drone platforms enables real-time spatial data capture alongside photogrammetry.
• 2018 Introduction of AI-enhanced feature matching and point cloud generation increases automation and accuracy in image processing.
• 2019 Neural Radiance Fields (NeRF) are first introduced
• 2020 Integration of LiDAR and photogrammetry from mobile devices (e.g., iPad Pro, iPhone 12 Pro and newer) enhances combined modeling.
• 2021 Reality capture pipelines using photogrammetry, LiDAR, and ML become essential tools in game development, digital twins, and VR/AR applications.
• 2023 3D Gaussian Splatting research (e.g., by Google Research) introduces new methods for efficient, photo-realistic scene reconstruction.
• 2024 Cloud-native platforms offering end-to-end photogrammetry processing, AI-driven editing, and integration with GIS, 3D printing, and Metaverse development

Laser scanning

20th century

• 1960s First laser distance measurements (coinciding with laser invention in 1960).
• 1980s Terrestrial laser scanners (TLS) emerge for industrial metrology.
• 1990s Airborne LiDAR (e.g., Optech ALTM) revolutionizes topographic mapping.

21st century

• 2001 First commercial TLS (e.g., Cyrax 2400).
• 2010s First Mobile LiDAR (e.g., Trimble MX9) for rapid urban surveys.
• 2014-2017 Google’s Tango project of real-time indoor 3D scanning using depth sensors and SLAM
• 2017 Real-Time SLAM and Mapping can perform on-the-fly mapping.
• 2020 Consumer LiDAR (Apple, iPad Pro) brings scanning to mass markets.
• 2023 Single-photon LiDAR (SPL) enables long-range, high-resolution mapping.